1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with a lightweight pallet fabricated entirely from recyclable paper (e.g., cardboard) which can be quickly constructed without gluing and which has an extremely favorable weight to load-bearing capacity. More particularly, it is concerned with such a paper pallet which can be shipped and stored as two die cut and scored cardboard pieces, thereby eliminating excess volume, with the pieces being readily interconnectable to form a complete pallet construction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Users of conventional wooden pallets are faced with a number of increasingly expensive problems. For example, damaged and no longer usable wooden pallets can not generally be taken to a landfill or other waste disposal site. Rather, they must be reduced, either by chipping or burning before disposal. Chipping is a significant problem inasmuch as nails and other metal fasteners must be removed from the pallet wood before the chipping operation can be undertaken. By the same token, increasingly stringent environmental regulations often preclude burning of used pallets.
It has been proposed in the past to fabricate pallets composed largely or entirely of corrugated cardboard material. For example, a pallet construction commercialized under the designation "Buckboard" includes an apertured, flat main panel with a plurality of depending, synthetic resin cup-like legs attached to the main panel. These units are deficient in that they are not completely recyclable, owing to the presence of the synthetic resin legs.
Another type of prior cardboard pallet commercialized under the designation "Payload" includes a plurality of transverse cross-rails with three separate supports beneath the rails. Although this unit is entirely recyclable, experience has proven that it is very time-consuming and difficult to fabricate. Moreover, the cost of such pallets is considerable, on the order of a good used wooden pallet. As such, this unit likewise presents real-world problems for a pallet user.